Comments on: Someone Broke the Brain's Jar

By: Matthew has joined your party! « Incredible Vehicle

Matthew has joined your party! « Incredible Vehicle — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:48:59 +0000

[...] 4, 2008 in Roleplaying With the demise of Gleemax, documented also here and here, a bunch of folks got together and created the RPG Bloggers Network. I thought, hey, why [...]

By: Lex

Lex — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:55:12 +0000

@Graham: Ah, I see… Well, since I just started using Linux, I’d have been totally lost trying to use WINE.

@shadow145: Sad but true.

@Greywulf: Yeah, I think some outsourcing would be good for them.

By: Gleemax is Dead…is WOTC feeling OK? « The Geek Emporium

Gleemax is Dead…is WOTC feeling OK? « The Geek Emporium — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:41:50 +0000

[...] version of MySpace, better known as Gleemax, is officially dead. I got the word over at Chatty DM’s yesterday. And, the thing is, I’m a bit sad it didn’t work out for WOTC. Yeah, [...]

By: Gleemax’s Failure and other thoughts at A Butterfly Dreaming

Gleemax’s Failure and other thoughts at A Butterfly Dreaming — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:37:34 +0000

[...] Chatty DM finds this an encouraging sign. His is the guardedly optimistic approach: that WotC has realized it’s overextended itself, trying to offer too much too soon, and is scaling back to concentrate on their key properties. And, moreover, that this signifies a change in their… corporate policy, I suppose. A redefinition of their scope of operations. Working on doing a couple of things well, rather than a lot of things piecemeal. [...]

By: GATO: The RPG Blogging Network | Wizards of the Coast refocusing on Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:22:54 +0000

[...] allows us to focus on Magic Online and D&Di, both of which deserve our attention and resources. Chatty DM makes the good point that this is far better than what WotC has done previously, which is to cover up bad things with [...]

By: Dave T. Game

Dave T. Game — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:17:59 +0000

Greywulf- Oddly, and possibly another sign of not knowing what to do with the Internet, WotC created an "Adamantine Dragon" account on Facebook and encouraged people to friend it on Dragon Day (or whatever that fake holiday was.) So even while they were developing their own, they were making small steps in that direction anyway, which then also petered out. Dave T. Games last blog post..Vote Today or Face a Red Dragon

By: greywulf

greywulf — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:10:14 +0000

Here’s an idea. Why don’t they just make the DDI applications Facebook applications and piggyback on an already existing, established and working social network? Now that Hasbro has finally discovered Kompooters (and despite their own Scrabble version for facebook being gawd awful), this is one social networking gaming solution that might actually work.

So, of course, it’ll never happen!

By: Buzzregog

Buzzregog — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:14:04 +0000

Not really related to the Gleemax shutdown, but WoTC is also canceling all the non DnD and Magic Novel lines. Maybe Paizo will pick up a few of them.

Also of note, the number of staffers posting to forums seems to have dropped off drastically as well on Enworld and other sites. (This via Critical Hits)

By: shadow145

shadow145 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:11:08 +0000

My memory may be hazy, but there was an episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Nightmare Kitchens (the british version most likely) where he was helping out this italian restaurant. He decided to check out the competition. There was something like 4 other italian restarants in the area. But no steakhouse at all. So he encouraged the owner to take his restaurant in a new direction and make it a steakhouse.

Gleemax offered nothing that wasn’t offered elsewhere (and offered elsewhere better). Forums, reviews, networking, blogging, and even gaming all could be found on other sites. Tying it all in one place was a neat idea, but way ambitious. And getting the folks who already use those existing sites to switch to Gleemax was a difficult proposition at best. They have history and stability at those sites, why switch? What can you offer?

It started off on a very bad foot (remember the whole “we own your content” fiasco?) Not to mention the buggyness. People saw it was still worse than useless and kept on doing their own thing on their own sites. Even if they got gleemax up to speed, it would have had an uphill battle losing the stigma and convincing folks to shift to it.

They would have had better luck holding off revealing it until they had more to show. But i think they were encouraged to get it out there as part of the DDI/4E initiative. Now Gleemax is a dirty word.

By: Tomcat1066

Tomcat1066 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Graham,

I’ll have to take your word for that. Like I said, I never really paid any attention to Gleemax. However, with WOTC spearheading it, I wouldn’t believe they wanted it to be platform neutral if I were a competitor.

Hopefully, some third party can create it and geeks will come. Of course, for the time being, we’ve got enough blogs, forums, and chat rooms that we can make all the social contacts we want

Tomcat1066s last blog post..I Got Skillz

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:40:30 +0000

It was interesting to see WotC staffers discuss their favorite non-Wizards games in such nonchalant manner in the early days of Gleemax.

Piyu…

By: Graham

Graham — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:33:51 +0000

@Tomcat -

Crazily, that was the ultimate goal of Gleemax. A system- and publisher-neutral social network. White Wolf could have a home there, as could Settlers of Catan, as could any other publisher.

But just try convincing anyone outside of WotC that that is the case.

By: Tomcat1066

Tomcat1066 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:27:55 +0000

I have to admit, I like the Gleemax concept, and for what it’s worth, if I had bothered to find out what exactly Gleemax was, I’d probably be a little sad. Still, the concept DOES have merit. I think it would work better outside of WOTC’s grasp however. World of Darkness players, Paranoia players, and pretty much every game imaginable could have their say in a gleemax-like social networking site.

If only I had the expertise and capital to pull it off

Tomcat1066s last blog post..I Got Skillz

By: Graham

Graham — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:19:29 +0000

@Lex -

A couple of the applications for D&DI are DirectX-based. They had an in-house DirectX 3D engine already.

But since it is possible to run DirectX under WINE, apparently, linux and mac users may still be able to use these applications.

Besides these, most (all?) of D&DI will be web-based, and therefore platform-independent. (The 3D apps aren’t released yet anyways.)

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:07:40 +0000

Hindsight being 20/20, they should have started with a small blogging platform open to the WotC staff. This would have controlled user frustrations and allowed the to focus on refining important features. It would also have brought in readership. Step two would be to launch a public beta where the public could blog. Then start building in social networking features. Finally launch the full on product.

This is definitively still open as a market… one just needs to grab the opportunity…

By: Tenach

Tenach — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:01:10 +0000

I never heard of Gleemax until now… says how much I pay attention to WotC’s online presence. The most I ever did was try MtG online, and hated the fact that I had to buy digital cards – I’d rather buy them and play in person (as long as they’re not the damned “new” cards… I’m somewhat of an oldschooler). From what I have seen though, as I did some research after reading this, it is a good thing that they are shutting it down.

By: Lanir

Lanir — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:21:09 +0000

My experience with it was kind of odd. I just got pointed at it and told the forums were decent. That’s pretty much all I ever did with it, browse the forums. And even then I had to go back to the person who pointed me at the site and ask which forum he was talking about since the layout there just got me lost. I wasn’t quite interested enough to go hunting around there on my own after that.

By: Wickedmurph

Wickedmurph — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:02:32 +0000

Well, I can’t see that Gleemax shutting down is going to have any impact on me, except possibly to speed up implementation of DDI, which is what I’m really interested in.

Seriously folks, if you didn’t like it, and didn’t use it, then who cares if it’s gone?

I’m with Chatty on this one. I’m willing to give WotC the benefit of the doubt on Insider, and as long as they let me try it for a bit before I have to buy, I’ll seriously consider it. Right now the subscription to DDI is free, and they’ve posted up a fair bit of interesting stuff. I’ve enjoyed perusing it, and it’s made my intro to 4e a bit easier.

That being said, it’s not worth $10 a month at this point. But *IF* the DDI tools are implemented and actually work as planned, $10 a month for that plus the current content I’m seeing, heck yeah that’ll be worth it. For me, at least. Hell, I’ll pay $120 a year not to have to cart around game boards and miniatures.

So Gleemax is gone. I didn’t use it, so I don’t care. I’m giving them time on DDI – we just started 4e, and as someone in the software biz, I know all about unexpected software delays. And bugs. Dear god the bugs.

By: Russ

Russ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:55:46 +0000

I gave Gleemax a try. One of my blog posts even won the weekly Gleemax Favorite contest (so is the gleemax hat I won going to be a collectors item?).

But I have to say, it is probably a good thing gleemax is being shut down. It really was launched way before its time. Too much was missing or didn’t work. I just hope the renewed focus on their other digital initiatives pays off. If not, it is time to focus on print and pdf products.

Hindsight being 20/20, they should have started with a small blogging platform open to the WotC staff. This would have controlled user frustrations and allowed the to focus on refining important features. It would also have brought in readership. Step two would be to launch a public beta where the public could blog. Then start building in social networking features. Finally launch the full on product.

By: ChattyDM

ChattyDM — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:17:31 +0000

I can’t fail to notice how absolutely no one outside of Gleemax is stepping up and saying that it’s a bad thing to close it.

I realize that readers of RPG blogs have (at least) partly left the fold of corporate websites and might not want anything to do about this venture.

Well as they say, the customer is always right.

I also agree that this thing never left the Beta stage. It always looked to me to be nothing more than a weirdly themed, iffy message board…

..and to think I once seriously thought I should move the blog over there… or open a mirror blog there.

I’m glad I didn’t.